If you’ve ever tried to book a U.S. visa appointment in Australia—you know how frustrating it can be not knowing the availability before you pay the MRV fee. Appointment availability can change by the day (hour?), and refreshing consulate websites all day isn’t exactly how you want to spend your week.
That’s why I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand new tool built specifically for our community: the E-3 Visa Appointment Calendar.
This is a free, community-driven tracker designed to help Australians applying for the E-3 visa monitor appointment availability in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth—and it should save you hours (and some stress).
Why I built the appointment calendar tracker
With the changes to visa interview requirements in the last few weeks (no more interview waivers and that you have to go back to Australia for appointments) I've seen more posts on social media (and in my inbox) asking if I have the most recent calendars for Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
So rather than relying on everyone asking separately, I thought it might be better if we pool our knowledge and have a way to share calendars more consistently.
I love helpful and simple tools!
How the visa calendar works
At its core, the E-3 Visa Appointment Calendar is a crowdsourced calendar that shows the latest appointment availability across the three major U.S. consulates in Australia.
- Available dates are highlighted in green
- Unavailable dates show in red
- Past data (on hover of dates) helps show trends over time so you know when that date WAS available in the past
You can explore the calendar like any other—you pick your city and scroll through future months to see what other users have recently reported.
The power of this community
What makes this tool special is you—the community. It works best when Australians help each other by sharing what they’re seeing in real time. I've seen so many of you share screenshots in the past and provide insight, and this way we can make sure that's seen by as many people across different groups as possible.
You can contribute in one of two ways:
- Upload a screenshot of the appointment calendar you see on the official U.S. consulate site
- Manually select the dates you know are available or unavailable for a month
Each submission is timestamped and tied to your first initial only (don’t worry—we protect your privacy and don't store anything at all else), which allows the system to verify freshness and create a timeline of changes.
Subscribe for appointment availability
The bit that I think will be most useful is that you can subscribe to email alerts for your preferred location and month. That means you’ll get a heads-up when a new appointment is reported as available—without having to check every hour of the day.
This is especially helpful if you’re waiting on a cancellation or if you’re preparing for a last-minute trip to the consulate.
It includes a tiny bit of AI
Because everything these days seems to need it, we allowed it to try and read your screenshots automatically.
What you need to know
- It’s free
- It’s fast
- It’s accurate (when everyone contributes)
- It’s built specifically for the Aussies looking to move to the US or renew their US visa
It’s one more way we can help each other navigate U.S. immigration a little more easily—and a lot more collaboratively.
How to find it
Head to the E-3 Visa Appointment Calendar and explore the current availability. If you’re checking consulate websites anyway, take a second to upload what you see—it might help someone just like you land their next appointment.
Have questions or suggestions? Reach out anytime. This is built for you—and it only gets better when we all chip in.
